The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife and Its Influence on Tentacle Erotica

The previous translations published on the internet of one of the most coveted erotic prints called ‘The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife‘ (蛸と海女) were not completely accurate. Below you can find the definitive translation and more background info on this shunga masterpiece…

Fig.1. ‘The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife (c.1814)’ from the series ‘Young Pine Saplings (Kinoe no komatsu)‘ by Katsushika Hokusai (Sold)

“In these albums we find this frightful image: on rocks green with seaweed lies a naked body of a woman, swooning with rapture, sicut cadaver, such that we know not if she is alive or has drowned, and an immense octopus, its dreadful pupils the shape of black quarter-moons, sucks her nether regions, while a smaller octopus greedily feasts upon her mouth.”

The Most Complete Translation of the Text in The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife

Octopus: “Wondering when to do the abduction, but today is the day. At least she’s captured. Even so, this is a plump, good pussy. A greater delicacy than even a potato. Saa, saa, sucking to complete satisfaction, then take her to be imprisoned in the Dragons King Palace.

Small octopus: “After my parent is finished, I too will use my projecting mouth to rub from her clitoris to her ass until [she] loses consciousness, and then I’ll do it again, chu, chu.”

Fig.2. ‘Octopus and ama diver‘ (c.1781) from the series ‘Yokyoku iro bangumi (Programme of Erotic Noh Plays)‘ by Kitao Shigemasa

Far-fetched Fantasy

In the catalogue of the British Museum Hayakawa Monta (professor at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies) comments on “The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife” the following:

“This is the shunga image by Hokusai that has always fascinated people the most. Dragging a diving woman into a cleft between two rocks a large octopus is taking its pleasure, using almost all of its eight legs to coil around and play with her arms, legs and nipple.

A second, smaller octopus simultaneously ‘kisses’ her on the mouth. For all that this is an image of far-fetched fantasy, with its powerfully volumetric forms and brilliant coloring, it nonetheless gives the vivid sensation that we are direct witnesses of the scene, as the tentacles seem to slither and writhe before our gaze.

Fig.3. The print that inspired Hokusai “Octopus” design entitled ‘Diver and Octopuses‘ (c.1786) from the series ‘Picture Book: Lust of Many Women on One Thousand Nights (Ehon chiyo-dameshi)‘ by Katsukawa Shuncho (act. ca. 1783 to 1795)

Corpse

The diving woman who gives up her body for the octopus to have its way may at first appear ‘lifeless, like a corpse’ (as Edmond de Goncourt wrote); but in fact she has all but lost consciousness with the pleasure that the creature is giving her. This is abundantly clear from her arched back, her tight grip on the tentacles, and her long sighs, cries and exclamations that fill the dialogue text surrounding them.

Diver Who Stole a Jewel

[…] The idea for the pairing of octopus and diving woman was not original to Hokusai. Some thirty years earlier the artist Kitao Shigemasa (1739-1820) drew a similar combination (see Fig.2.) in his erotic book ‘Yokyoku iro bangumi (Programme of Erotic Noh Plays)’, where the context was the ancient Taishokan tale of the diver who stole a jewel from the Dragon King’s Palace at the bottom of the sea.

Hokusai’s fellow pupil in the Katsukawa school, Katsukawa Shuncho, also depicted a diving woman having sex with an octopus (see Fig.3.)among rocks on the shore in ‘Ehon chiyo-dameshi (Erotic Book: Lusts of Many Women on One Thousand Nights)‘ of 1786.

Even before that, Suzuki Harunobu (d. 1770) and Katsukawa Shunsho (d. 1792; Fig.4.) had both designed so-called ‘risqué pictures’ (abuna-e) – images that titillating but not explicit – on the theme.”

Still photo of the film ‘Edo Porn‘ (1981)

Update Monday 24 February 2020

Graphic Power

An accurate description of The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife by the shunga expert Rosina Buckland (British Museum) goes as follows: […] ‘Despite the passage of nearly two hundred years, it has lost none of its arresting graphic power. A naked woman lies between to seaweed-covered rocks, her legs spread to accommodate a huge octopus which penetrates her with its mantle. One of its tentacles curls around to stimulate her clitoris. At her head, a smaller octopus cradles her neck as it battens on to her mouth and tweaks her left nipple.’

Hypodermic Fat

The woman is one of the female divers (ama or awabi) who gathered abalone shellfish. Women possess more hypodermic fat so have an advantage over men in being able to endure the cold temperatures of the water, and these divers were renowned for their ability to hold their breath for long periods of time.

Cutting Her Breast

Ama had appeared in various archaic stories, in particular Taishokan, the tale of a Buddhist jewel captured along the way from China to Japan and taken to the Palace of the Dragon-King. An ama finally succeeds in rescuing the jewel, but only by cutting her breast open to conceal it, thereby sacrificing her own life.

Barely Clad

This story was turned into a noh play in the early fifteenth century, as well as being adapted for more popular stage plays. The story was represented in woodblock prints, but during the eighteenth century the depiction of the barely clad divers, wearing only a red underskirt, became sensualized and provided suitable subject matter both for ukiyo-e designs of beauties (such as the opening page of the Utamaro’s Poem of the Pillow album), and for explicit images of octopuses penetrating and sucking.

Heroic Diver

In addition, tako, the word for octopus, was argot for vagina, for its ability to suck firmly, and this term is used in the dialogue here. Yet the design lacks obvious references to the tale of the heroic diver, contemporary readers (viewers) of the book would have been familiar with these links, and would have understood the visual play which Hokusai was deploying in his extraordinary design.*

‘An octopus performing cunnilingus on a pearl (ama) diver ‘ (c.1900) from the series ‘Shunshoku Hanakoyomi‘ by an unknown Meiji artist. The Japanese characters refer to the month July (Fumizuki – 文月, “Month of Erudition”)

See also, Museu Picasso de Barcelona, "Secret Images: Picasso and the Japanese Erotic Print" (2010) and Danielle Talerico, "Intepreting Sexual Imagery in Japanese Prints: A Fresh Approach to Holusai's 'Diver and Two Octopi'" (Impressions, #23, 2001).

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